As the feud over the sharing of the waters of the Krishna between the two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana rages on, the KCR regime today penned another letter to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) demanding that the body cancel a meeting of its three-member committee scheduled for July 9.
In the letter, state special Chief Secretary Rajit Kumar demanded that the KRMB organise a full-fledged board meeting on or after July 20 instead. He then provided a detailed agenda for the proposed board meeting.
Among the many points the Telangana government reportedly wants to discuss, the most important is its request for reviews of the water-sharing agreements between itself and AP and of the "illegal" canal works being carried out by the Jagan regime. Further, it wants the KRMB to take steps to stop the neighbouring state from diverting "excess water" away from the Krishna basin through the Pothireddypadu project.
Claiming that the Centre's Central Water Commission has okayed the Polavaram project, the TRS government has also proposed that 45 TMC of water be allocated to Telangana, with potable water counting as only 20% of this amount.
In the meantime, the government has refused to stop producing electricity at the Srisailam plant despite the continuous demands of the AP government that it suspend all hydroelectric power generation immediately.
Providing an explanation for this decision, Kumar clarified in the letter that the Srisailam project was sanctioned by the Planning Commission in 1963 as a Hydro-Electric Project (HEP).
Yesterday, too, the KCR government had informed the KRMB that the
Srisailam HEP was meant for power production.
In a letter addressed to the board, state irrigation officials had strongly opposed the arguments put forth by those leaders of the AP government who were demanding that electricity generation at the left side of the project site be stopped.